Northanger Abbey
Unabridged Large Print Edition
by Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey is a coming-of-age story and satire of the Gothic novels which became pervasive in late 18th century England. The story follows Catherine Morland, a 17-year-old who lacks life experience and is determined to see the best in people. Her fondness for Gothic novels and active imagination distort her view of the world, and while she has a good-natured personality and is observant she is also naïve, not seeing the underlying intentions in people’s actions.
With Austen’s characteristic wit, and sarcasm the novel follows Catherine as she matures and acquires a better understanding of people’s natures, of herself, and of the world around her.
Northanger Abbey was actually the first novel completed by Jane Austen, and the manuscript was sold with the title “Susan” to a bookseller in 1803 for £10, about £1,288 in 2024 currency. For reasons still unknown the book was never published, and Jane’s brother bought the manuscript back from the bookseller in 1816 for the same price they had paid.
With her health already declining, Jane revised the book, re-naming the main character “Catherine” and using that as her working title, completely rewriting some sections, during 1816-1817.
Publication of the book, together with Persuasion, was arranged by her brother after her death in 1817.
This quality edition is not an electronic scan or reproduction. Prepared by human editors it includes the complete unabridged text printed on heavy bright white paper with a fully laminated cover.
Jane Austen
The seventh child and second daughter of Cassandra and George Austen, Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England into a family at the lowest tier of the English landed gentry.
With the exception of a short period at a boarding school and visits to a brother who was, for a time, a London banker, Austen lived her entire life within a close-knit family group very much like the gentry who make up the characters of her novels, mainly located in the countryside very much like the settings of her novels. In a cruelly ironic twist, Austen’s family would suffer the fate feared by Mrs. Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice” when her father died, unexpectedly in 1805, leaving his wife and unmarried daughters destitute and dependent upon her brothers for support.
In her 30s, Jane started to anonymously publish her works. Between 1811-16, she published Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice (a work she referred to as her “darling child,” which also received critical acclaim), Mansfield Park and Emma. Authorship was attributed to “A Woman”.
She found modest critical and financial success in her lifetime, but by 1830 her books had been out of print for a decade when the copyrights were purchased and new illustrated editions included in Richard Bentley’s popular “Standard Novels” series. With wider exposure they gained popularity and stature and sold steadily if not spectacularly. Throughout the 19th century Austen’s work had an admiring following among Britain’s self-proclaimed “literary elite,” but it was really not until the early twentieth century that her novels became the object of academic studies as “great literature”.
Austen’s work was part of the transition to realism in 19th century British literature, and her romantic fiction, set for the most part among the gentry of the English countryside was marked by dry wit, satire, and sharp social commentary, often directed at the unfairness of the British legal and cultural systems that left women virtually entirely dependent upon marriage and family for social standing and economic security.
In 1816, at the age of 41, Jane’s health began to deteriorate. She made efforts to continue working, editing older works and starting a new novel called The Brothers, unfinished but published after her death as Sanditon. She died on July 18, 1817, in Winchester, Hampshire, England.
Product details
ASIN: B0CX42GNQJ
Publisher: S. M. Holden, independently published (March 4, 2024)
Language: English
Paperback: 311 pages
ISBN: 979-8879949926
Item Weight: 1.55 pounds
Dimensions: 7.44 x 0.71 x 9.69 inches
Customer Reviews: 5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 1 rating
3.8 on Goodreads 406,872 ratings
List Price: $17.97
